LaCie Hard Disk MAX has major design flaw in RAID 1 configuration

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Using a RAID configuration for local storage can offer up increased reliability or a speed bump when accessing your data. But it’s the added reliability that most people opt to use RAID for, and some storage companies use the feature as a selling point for their products.

One of those companies is LaCie, which offers a range of external storage products sporting multiple drives and the option to use RAID configurations. One of those drives is the LaCie Hard Disk MAX. It comes in either a 2TB or 4TB configuration, with that storage split across two hard drives accessible over a USB connection. RAID is listed as a feature offering “maximum capacity or security.”

If you have a lot of data to store, and want to ensure it remains safe, opting for the Hard Disk MAX and using a RAID 1 configuration sounds like a great solution. RAID 1 mirrors your data across both drives, so if one fails you still have another copy on the other drive.

The problem is, LaCie’s Hard Disk MAX renders a RAID 1 configuration quite useless unless you are willing to void your warranty. That’s what one owner was surprised to find when one of the drives in his MAX failed.

The issue seems to be a major oversight on the part of LaCie. They have for some reason configured the Hard Disk MAX to stop working if one of the drives inside fails. That means you cannot recover the data from the other disk without opening up the case. However, if you open the case, you void the LaCie warranty, meaning you can’t claim for a new drive. It’s a Catch 22 situation.

The person this affected, posting on Reddit under the name KamehamehaWave, uploaded his conversation with LaCie support regarding the matter. It’s quite an eye-opening read. LaCie take the opportunity to try and sell KamehamehaWave their d2 Recovery service, which costs at least $399 for a single drive recovery. That’s very expensive, especially considering the MAX only costs $349.99 for the most expensive 4TB model.

KamehamehaWave decided to open his MAX and retrieve the data himself, but now he has a MAX drive that doesn’t work and isn’t covered under warranty because of the action he took. However, it doesn’t look as though he had much of a choice as the only other option LaCie gave him was spending $400 on a data recovery service he shouldn’t require if the MAX had worked as advertised.

We’ve contacted LaCie for comment and will update if they respond with an explanation.

UPDATE: LaCie has now responded via the original Reddit post about what happened. You can read the comment here. It looks like this was a fault on the part of LaCie’s customer service team, and the drive should have been sent back for repair.